Contest: share your most "beat" yo-yo, win a new yo-yo! [ended 11/16]

[codinghorror]

I think it’s healthy to remember that however nice our yo-yos may be, they’re still just toys, and the goal is to play with them… which may mean they get a bit of “battle damage” in the process. That’s something to be proud of, never ashamed!

So let’s have a contest around that.

Please share this contest URL across social media so lots of yo-yoers can sign up, enter, and have a chance of winning! The URL of the topic is https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/contest-share-your-most-beat-yo-yo-win-a-new-yo-yo/294302

The Rules™

• Contest is run by me, actual human person Jeff Atwood, and is not sponsored by or related to YYE in any way whatsoever. It’s all me.

• Contest will run for 3 weeks, from 10/26/2018 to 11/16/2018

• The goal of the contest is to share a picture and story of your most “beat” yo-yo that you’ve played with the most and that you still play with.

• Pictures of “beat” yo-yos must be posted in the topic, only one post and thus one entry per person.

• There can be multiple pictures in the post, but at least one picture of the “beat” yo-yo MUST be taken with this topic in the background on a monitor or phone screen, so I know it’s a real live picture you personally snapped, and not one copied from elsewhere on the Internet. I am not the boss of you, nor do I want to be, but please only enter yo-yos that you personally own and play with.

• If you can include a story about the beat yoyo, what it means to you, and how you play with it… this will be strongly factored into your chances of winning as well. This is not “best picture wins”, this is “best picture AND STORY” wins … so get those writing fingers ready.

• I will open this up to worldwide winners, with the caveat that if you live outside the continental US, you are responsible for paying shipping costs. The winning yoyos are indeed free prizes, but I’m only including continental US shipping.

Now about those fabulous prizes

There will be three winners, MOSTLY determined by likes on the post, but also by my personal editorial decision judging the photo and submitted story… which is final and binding. Hey, I figure these are some pretty nice yo-yos you’re potentially getting for free, so I get to pick who wins

There will be three winners chosen after 3 weeks, and the prizes are all mint condition yo-yos:

YoyoFreaks SuperFreak bimetal, Tropic Thunder colorway
OD Kraken, purple/pink/grey splash
44 RPM blues, silver

WINNERS ANNOUNCED! See results post

Entries that do not FOLLOW THE RULES will NOT be eligible, so read carefully before posting! That said, please share a link to this topic wherever yo-yo players congregate, so we can all enjoy some awesome beat yo-yo tales and pics!

[MarkD (Mk1 Yoyos)]

CLYW Compass I got used for a steep discount. Not too bad, considering - still plays smooth, and I use it regularly.

[LinksLegionaire (Bandalorian)]

This isn’t my most beat yoyo (that honor belongs to my old as dirt Genesis), but it probably has the most interesting story. I recently sparked this bad boy in the streets of Barcelona, and in the northern parts of Sweden

[smileypants707]

My most beat yoyo is my n12. I learned about safety throws on this yo-yo. This yoyo also taught me about personal space awareness, including the distance from the end of the knot to the ground (lol).

There are several pretty good size craters along these rims, but it’s still part of my regular rotation and it is still smooth as butter. This yoyo is the first one that I attempted my own flowable silicone response too. It’s crazy, this yo-yo is excellent quality for its price. If this one ever does bite the dust, I’d probably get another one, no joke.

This is also the first yoyo that I used to perform some tricks in front of another person. In fact, I was so nervous that one of the dings is from that little session.

It was my first metal. Well, one of my first. I purchased this and a top deck at the same time.

[TheYoyoer27]

Silly old ten year old me thought it was a good idea to walk the dog on hard bricks in Martha’s Vineyard. It didn’t turn out too well.

[AlexDerYoyo-er]

I asked my mom for a yoyo many years back and she found this zen 4 on amazon and got it for me for christmas. this throw was quite cheaper than my other yoyos at the time (888x and a wooly marmot) but I still used it a ton because absolutely loved how floaty it was.

after dinging it up a bit I probably saw some post on this forum about how you could sand yoyos so I gave it a go on the rims to get some blemishes out. I tried to do it in such a style so that looking from one side would be bare metal, and the other would still be colored, but it was too hard to sand the inner wall.

I got most of the light dings out but the deeper ones obviously stayed there. …and then I dinged it up some more anyway

[Quartzite]

My shutter wide angle, it’s dinged like that all around and was my second unresponsive.

[Atomsk]

This is my Yomega Maverick. It is my first, and only, metal Yoyo.

When I first decided to try my hand at throwing I bought a Ducan Butterfly from a shop at the mall. It was fun, and I learned a couple of tricks with it, such as Stop & Go and the Trapeze.

It wasn’t long before I wanted to upgrade. I looked over Amazon and found the Maverick. As a long time Mega Man X fan, I felt the Maverick was perfect.

It arrived in the mail, and I excitedly tried it out. I gave it a few throws, and it felt great. Compared to my Butterfly it was like night and day.

I took it to work with me, and I’d mess around when I had some free time. That was a couple of years ago.

Well, one day at work I found a stainless steel ring caked in mud in a parking lot. I took it back to the shop and cleaned it thoroughly. It perfectly fit my index finger, so I put it on, and forgot about it…

A bit later I picked up my Maverick for a few throws and noticed it clanking against the ring when it returned. I thought nothing of it, and kept on for a few minutes. When I went to set the Maverick down I noticed a ding. As I studied it, I saw marks all around both edges. Dozens of them.

The stainless steel ring had bit into the soft aluminum of the Maverick with every throw…

I was a little upset, but over time I’ve gotten used to it. I figured the damage was already done, so I still use it with the ring. It actually makes a very satisfying clank every time it returns.

Since then I’ve picked it up almost every work day, at least for a few throws.

I’ve learned a few more tricks, such as Magic Drop and Shockwave. In the past few weeks I’ve learned the Houdini Mount, which is my favorite so far. From there I can drop into a trapeze, then repeat Magic Drop and Shockwave until the Maverick runs out of steam. So much fun, and I think my tricks are starting to actually look good to observers.

I think I’ve pushed the Maverick about as far as it will go, and have been thinking of getting an upgrade. There are so many options though, I honestly don’t know where to start…

I found this contest on Reddit and thought, maybe that’s a good place!

(I’m a new user, so I can only add one image . I do have others though if needed, including one with this topic in the background.)

Edit: I stuffed a couple more photos in there, then reduced image quality until the file was <3MB.

[Clifton (Clifton B)]

One of these is a brand new Project. The other is one of the first projects ever made, and it’s been with me for 11 years.

I won’t say which is which.

[vegabomb (LJ)]

@codinghorror was kind enough to run this contest. He does though have some specific rules regarding entry. The last couple entries should go take a look at them as they may want to edit their posts.

[Clifton (Clifton B)]

@vegabomb Ah, right, thanks! But I don’t actually think I’m eligible to win. Or if I am, I’m probably not able to accept non-OD throws. I still really like sharing my beat-to-heck Project.

[MastarMash (Mash Mastar)]

This was one I thought I stood a fighting chance in. Also I am mortified by your photos yet proud!

[codinghorror]

Thank you for your posts @clifton and @Quartzite but you must add one additional photo with the yoyo that has the forum in the background to be eligible to win!

If you are not interested in winning, and just want to share a cool pic of a beat yoyo that’s been much loved that is also great! But I just want you to have a chance to win, if you like!

[MastarMash (Mash Mastar)]

One last try with out pushing the excess!

It is hard to capture 3d(360 degrees) damage on a photo!

[coyo7e (Carlos)]

Dude - hold my beer I just thought of a trick! I got dis…

A kid at my work was throwing a yoyo back in June, and I was like, “oh, hey! used to be good at that!” But I had no idea how far things had gone past doing 3 round-the-worlds or a couple of shoot the moons without hurting myself… But this guy was doing Lacerations and had a freeweight! I was hooked.

A couple hundred hours of practise later, and 2,000+ strong-handed 360s (still working on doing them with my weak-hand) I am starting to get good, but I feel really sorry for the fallen or crippled soldiers who helped to get me to this point:

[Album] Damn, Canon is one reliable throw!

^^^ most-recent update prior to the end of the contest. I’ve been chaining meltdowns and found SLUSNY’s tricks, and this canon has hit the ground easily 100 times now, possibly 200+… Also, been working on horizontal 5a 360s, which don’t involve a lot of dropping but are super tricky when your throw’s rims are buzz saws lol

^^^ My canon is my submission, it’s absolutely wrecked but still can give me easily 20 seconds of exchanging and 360s, meltdopwns, etc. The freeweight is half of a pink pet eraser, with a penny stuck inside for the weight you need to do more advanced 5a tricks. The eraser lasts for maybe 6-10 hours before it’s come apart, but the price is right and Duncan are not nice about 5a weights, and nobody nearby sells Duncan 5a stuff.

This is the story of the yoyos I have in the front room. I have gone through probably 15+ by now, I have 2-3 mints, gave away 3 or 4, and still defnitely have around 10 in various stages of damage:

[Album] What's that? A damaged throw contest? Let me tell you about a trick called,...

^^^pic of forums

5A Yoyo Tutorial - Level 5 - Trick 9 - Freegen

^^^ the reason I went through two boxes of bandaids - but I invented this trick accidentally on my own, until I talked to Eli Tan who knew what to call the spinning wheel of death I kept reaching into early… I still am calling my version the Shuriken, because I don’t wait for the weight to kick out - I just grab it and take control again!

Chronicles of an Age of Darkness

^^^ amazing fantasy series, where every novel is depicting the same period of time, but from different perspectives. Also a lot of puns.

Edit: Canon is my official submission, because I believe there was only one submission. I blew up the bearing in that freeweight though, and it hurt (my knuckles), so I’ll take a pic or video of myself throwing with both if that’s necessary. (I only have one official freeweight, so mostly i use cobbled junk like erasers and weighted corks, but keep my throws stringless to exchange.)

edit: Canon update - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKE1cqAP8UQ

[Theolodger]

As Richard Hammond said in that truck episode of Top Gear, “I know it’s bad, I know it’s bad…”

Yeah. This is one of my most beaten up yo-yos, it’s a Duncan Pulse, and it was one of my first yo-yos. Well, I have a few stories about it and it being beaten up… How it went was, I was busy re-arranging the string and putting in a new bearing when suddenly a friend comes up, pushes me, and two bearings (one brand new) and a spacer tumbled straight down the side of the building. You can imagine what I said to him for that… In the end one of my Duncan Pro Zs had to sacrifice a spacer and it’s bearing, sharing it with the Pulse. You may see, in one of the photos, that one of the sides of the Pulse has no batteries and other electronics… That was because I wanted to replace the axle (remember I was an absolute beginner then) So I tore out the electronics and some plastic walls and found that the plastic holding the axle in was firmly stuck to the yoyo. So now only one side of the lights work. As you can see in the photo, the paint is scratched due to repeated smashing (again, remember I was a beginner) and it now says it’s a ‘Dunan Pse’ on one side and a ‘Duncan Puse’ on the other! and That’s it’s story.

unnecessary information Also, the photo was taken with a Canon EOS 5D MKIII and the computer is a mid 2009 Macbook Pro.unnecessary information ends

Are there any photo quality points?

[vegabomb (LJ)]

@coyo7e Hi. This is an all ages forum. Please don’t use profanity in your posts. I edited your post regarding Duncan.

Thanks.

[Spacebassface (Ned)]

My Rain City Skills Showgirl is definitely my most beat yoyo it’s been dinged up, sanded down and scuffed all to heck but it’s still as soon as the day I got it. It now lives in my desk drawer at work and is my warehouse carry.

[coyo7e (Carlos)]

Oof. My horizon was never the same after it lost a little metal. It went from powerful, to heavy and meh.

[coyo7e (Carlos)]

Use a whetstone. I nicked the ring on my Horizon removing a bearing, and with a little spit and a whetstone that I generally use for sharpening fishing hooks and knives, I was able to smooth it out to where I couldn’t feel the nicks on string. Never spun anywhere near as long though.